The ExChristian.Net blog exists for the express purpose of encouraging those who have decided to leave Christianity behind. This area contains articles sent in between January 2001 and February 2010. To view recent posts, click on the "Home" link.

ARCHIVES:

GOD is a SEXIST!

Any honest, thinking person reading through the bible cannot ignore the blatant misogyny and barbarity towards women. The eminent 'men of God" who wrote the bible were the product of patriarchal, tribal, violent, intolerant, monotheistic society. They reflect the ignorance and brutality of that society and at the dawn of a new millennium, fundamentalists insist that we should all abide by biblical law.

It is no accident that from the very beginning the bible cements women's inferior status. In 1Timothy 2:11-15 we are told that women are not permitted to have authority over men and that they must be silent because Adam was formed first then Eve.

Consider this: when God created all the animals he made male and female together. Then he created Adam. Adam was alone in the Garden of Eden, so God puts Adam to sleep, extracts one of his ribs and out of that single rib creates Eve. Even before the fall woman is accorded inferior status by deliberately being created after Adam instead of being created together. Why would an all-knowing God create man first then woman, shouldn't he have known that Adam would need a partner?

Anyway, God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and permits them to eat the fruit from all the trees but one - the tree of "knowledge"! The serpent, a wise and knowing creature approached Eve and suggested that she eat from the forbidden tree. When Eve saw that the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it - it is no surprise that Abrahamic religions value ignorance as a virtue for women. Adam is exonerated from sin since it was the woman who led him astray. Perhaps Adam would have been better off with an inflatable doll rather than a real, thinking woman!

Calvin declared:

"Woman is more guilty than man, because she was seduced by Satan, and so diverted her husband from obedience to God that she was an instrument of death leading to all perdition. It is necessary that woman recognize this, and that she learn to what she is subjected; and not only against her husband. This is reason enough why today she is placed below and that she bears within her ignominy and shame."

Eve was punished severely for her attempt to gain knowledge, for disobedience and for exerting independence from her husband. I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing... Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you." Genesis 3:16. In accordance with God's command, some fundamentalist sects forbid painkillers during childbirth.

Some years ago I had a heated discussion with a Greek Orthodox woman regarding the subject of women priests. She claimed that women should not and could not become priests because of their monthly unclean state - they would defile the altar. Her view summed up the biblical contempt for women's bodies and natural functions (also shared by Islam and Judaism) There are several verses in the bible that emphasise women's uncleanness.

"A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding. These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. She is to bring two doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean." Leviticus 12: 1-8

If a woman gives birth to a girl she is unclean for twice as long.

"When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. … If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days..." Leviticus 15:19-32.

“Man born of woman…Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!” Job 14:1-4

In some denominations women are still considered unclean during their menses. E.g. in the Greek Orthodox church women who have given birth attend church forty days after the birth to make amends for their uncleanness and be declared clean by the priest. Young women are still exhorted by their mothers and mothers in law to bow to this insulting and demeaning ritual.

The words whore and harlot are used frequently in the bible to describe women who deviated from the double standards sexual moral code. Women's bodies were not their own but the property of fathers and husbands. Virginity and chastity were mandatory for women and any woman breaking the double standard moral code was put to death. Under Mosaic Law men were permitted many wives while women were permitted only one and were subject to a test for unfaithfulness - Numbers 5:11-31. Men could divorce their wives on a whim - Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Women's main role was to bear male children and infertile women were scorned. In the bible it was always the women who were sterile, never the men.

“…If however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death..." Deuteronomy 22:13-21.

Cultures, which demand virginity and chastity in women, have as their bedrock the double standard morality code. If men are encouraged to view women as depreciative chattels they will never regard them as human. And if women are not regarded as human, then all kinds of atrocities and injustices are permissible against them!

"For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head;" 1 Corinthians 11:9, 10.

“…women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission...” 1 Corinthians 14:34

“Wives submit to your husbands, as is fitting to the Lord.” Colossians 3:18

Polygamy still exists amongst fundamentalist Mormons and certain sects. A fundamentalist group in America instructs women to call their husbands MASTER and to practice the art of being a SLAVE. Various fundamentalists exhort wives to submit and obey and have embarked on a chastity crusade targeting young women.

Today the religious right still uses the bible as a manual for the enslavement of women and persecution of homosexuals. Not only is the bible infested with sexism, but violence and obscenity also abound. Under the guise of "family values", the religious right is fighting to reverse all the gains made by women: the right to own property, the right to tertiary education, the right to work, the right to childcare, the right to vote, the right to plan their families, the right to equal wages, the right to enter politics and above all the right to sexual autonomy.

In the Roman Catholic tradition the Virgin Mary is held up as a role model for women. She symbolizes female "virtues" such as obedience, submission, chastity and silence. In fervent Catholic countries, Catholic women are encouraged to emulate her. In fact the more women submit and self-efface themselves the more they are praised for being “good” Christian women. The Roman Catholic Church glorifies one woman while it rubbishes all the rest.

The "glory" of motherhood is constantly drummed into women with the intent of preventing them from doing anything else. At the same time the bible emphasises women's uncleanness after childbirth, and states that we are all born sinful. Even Mary had to make a sin offering after the birth of Jesus.

It is time women saw the bible for what it is: a man-made, primitive "revelation"! No woman with a shred of self-esteem would want to demean herself by bowing to such tyrannical and self-effacing absolutes. Every time a woman submits to such demotion she throws away her sell-worth. Women's self-worth is anathema to fundamentalists who accuse women of being selfish and ungiving.

Some Christian apologists claim that sexist biblical verses are a reflection of Hebrew society of that time and that Jesus Christ was a reformer who endeavoured to improve the status of women. They point to Proverbs 31:10-31 describing the virtues of a good wife - hard working, intelligent while implying that such women are so rare that their price is more than the price of rubies. On the other hand, fundamentalists invoke sexist verses in order to deny women their rights. In the US, Reconstructionists dream of doing away with the constitution and enforcing their own version of "God's law" based on the Old Testament. They advocate the death penalty for adultery, homosexuality, witchcraft, blasphemy, unchastity and sacrificing to "false gods".

Despite apologists attempts to "white-wash" the bible with a litany of excuses, it does not change the fact that the bible is anti women.

I urge you not to take my word for it but to check it out yourself. Here are some more biblical "gems" to look up:

20:17 Wife as property. 21:4 Wife and children belong to master. 21:7-11 OK to sell daughters. Female slaves can be used for sex. Polygamy permitted. Unwanted female slaves can be set "free" without payment of money. 22:18 Kill witches.

9:6-7 Slaughter all including children. CH 16 Prostitutes, stoning, promiscuity... CH 23 Tale of two adulterous sisters - reads like the script of a pornographic film. I bet you weren't told this story at Sunday school!

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Man you are so right!!The xtians dont even know their own book and tell people to study the bible more!The landover baptist church even some of them say that this church does not exist says that women have no souls.The bible and god insult the women as they were mere cattle and no one cant speak against that,when they do they are doing exactly ehat the bible tells them to do.

The bible simply states, it does not judge or condone behavior. God granted men free will, if he had wanted a perfect world, he would have created one. He wants us to accept him voluntarily and so he gives us choices. The steps we take are our own, and the bible simply documents them as such.

If "god" didn't want a "perfect" world, then why is he concerned about what people do on earth? The whole "free will" thing is about as incredible as the "unconditional love" bullshit that is spewed. If "god" loved us unconditionally, there would be no threat of "hell". The bible is a collection of myths and legends of a primative people.

Okay, let's eliminate all men and baby boys except a few for reproduction purposes and for doing hard labour, as a Danish feminist party once suggested, and then you'll see that there will be a clash among women for leadership: domination and submission.

Realise that Adam and Eve where created for eternity, and if they had passed the test, they would have been 'upgraded' to angels, but they choose the way of the flesh, and so they were 'downgraded' to the level of animals (Ecclesiastes 3:18), and in the animal world the right of the strongest rules.

In comaparison to peoples around them, the chosen people of God were much more civilized, and the coming of Jesus in this world was a true revolution and a revelation to women, hence Jesus had a devoted following of women.Jesus loves women as much as he loves men, in a spiritual sense, and they are as important to him as men.If you want read the Bible -and especially the New Testament- with sexist eyes than that's the problem of the reader, but when you see what it's really all about, than you look again and then you want to know Jesus, because he is love, but also the coming judge, and than you know you were meant to be like the angels to love God and to be loved by Him for all eternity in a world where there is no more need for reproduction and sexualtity.

read this article: FEMINISM AND THE BIBLE http://www.vuw.ac.nz/chaplains/issues/feminism2.html

In response to John's post. Yes man and woman were downgraded to the status of animals in which it is survival of the fittest. That doesn't in any way, shape or form explain the fact that man was still regarded as higher than the other animals and woman below or equal to them.Whether or not we as a species were 'downgraded' doesn't make up for that fact. Strength wise yes a man would be considere fittest, but woman have many strengths man does not possess- which the bible fails to mention. After exodus is over man are still considered the 'favourites' for lack of a better term of God.